Image of the Dosan-seowon on the back of the old version of Korea's 1000-won bills. This was replaced around 2004 by the a painting of another area by famed 18th-Cen "True-View" artist Jeong Seon (right).

Seowon are privately-run Neo-Confucian Academies with a Shrine for a Sage-teacher. Toegye originated these important institutions, building the Sosu-seowon (the first one in Korea) to honor An Hyang (who brought Neo-Confucianism to Korea in the early 1300s) in the early 1500s. After that seowon were usually established by the Yangban aristocratic clans to honor a sage of their clan, and maintained by the subsequent generations of disciples (teachers & students) who served there. They would regularly hold memorial-ceremonies for the principal enshrined sage, and other masters of his and their lineage(s). There were hundreds of seowon by the early 1800s, but then most of them were suppressed / destroyed around 1870.

Dosan-seowon was originally the school that Toegye built to teach in, but was upgraded to a seowon by enshrining him after his death by his own students, then expanded with Andong Yi clan and royal support. It was reconstructed as a tourist site under the programs of President Park Chung-hee during the 1970s, and is regarded as one of the Four Greatest Seowon.